Recent developments in space dyeing, as disclosed in my co-pending application Ser. No. 664,553, filed Mar. 8, 1976, and now abandoned, relate to a dyeing process in which a roll of knit, tubular-shaped prefabric, the first stage of a knit-deknit process, is presented to a dye station while in the rolled package. Dye liquor is applied to spaced areas on the side surfaces of the roll in such amounts as to form, at least initially separate and distinct regions of dye which spread both transversely into the roll and in all directions throughout a plurality of convolute layers. The dye and crimp is subsequently heat set in an autoclave and the tube is deknitted according to conventional practices to provide a textured or crimped yarn having various types of unique, random color variations. Further such a dyeing technique accelerates the dyeing operation to such an extent that the cost per pound of dyeing is reduced to make space dyed yarn much more economical than at present and also desirable for additional uses not possible before.
During the above-described operation, it is necessary to apply dye liquor to the side surfaces of the knit/deknit tubing package. It is important in such techniques to be able to control the amount of dye liquor applied, so that the resulting fabric will have lighter or darker overall tones, as desired. Further the amount of dye liquor introduced into the roll of knit tubing and the points of application of such dye liquor in repeated operations must be controlled to insure consistency of the pattern from roll to roll, even though the resulting fabric pattern, which is formed after the yarn is deknit, appears in some cases to be random. In other cases where the one color is used to cover an entire side, the application of dye must be such as to spread from the initial points of application to evenly cover an entire side.
Other desirable features of any apparatus used in performing the technique described hereinabove would include a single point of activation, as well as flexibility in the dye fixture, so that patterns can be varied as desired.